Is there any escape from high prices and the credit crunch? It’s been the turn of holidays recently, with newspaper headlines shouting out about soaring costs and families sacrificing their summer break.

But are the headlines right? We’ve been asking our customers if they thought their siblu holiday was value for money and a whopping 93% wholeheartedly agreed (and the other 7% said it was satisfactory).

A quick check on the web and I see that catching a plane to the Canaries costs over £2,000 for a family in a b&b hotel in July; fly to Florida and the lowest price gets closer to £3,000, for a room only hotel. Well, stay with siblu in late July and the cost is about £1,000 for a family, staying seven nights with Dover-Calais ferry, in accommodation with ensuite bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen, a sun terrace and a grassy play area!

On top of that, we’ll entertain your kids for free (what parent can say no). Our pool complexes are free, our children’s clubs run twice on most days, we have free stage shows every evening, there are free sports and you don’t need to pay for travel and parking, everything is available on parc. So, can you beat that by staying at home?

I think self catering is another smart way to save. French markets are great and seasonal foods are low cost, healthy and it’s fun to try new things. We’ve just launched a small selection of really easy recipes which can be cooked in your mobile home – even I managed the asparagus and ham and the scallops with Muscadet (okay, with a bit of help from my wife).

To see how an expert handles them click here, or for other recipe ideas I like the Small Time Cooks blog – Jessica’s ‘My Monsieur’ sandwich is a winner! If you want to find out more about our cooking schools, have a look here.

So, 93% of siblu customers say their holiday gave great value for money; a few newspapers say there’s a price panic – take your choice!